Photograph the Moon with Different Lenses
OK, you have to read this article!!!
Why...
well, of course the moon is cool
but this article really shows WHY you need a good lens. It will make you realize that it is not about the body but really about the glass. I am not even talking the magnification of the lens, although he does show that, I am talking about the QUALITY of the glass -- L lenses ROCK!
Bottom line...consumer lenses are much worse than L lenses and zoom lenses are worse than fixed focal length lenses...
The article also shows a great RAW vs JPG comparison...
He also shows the effect of filters, especially on certain lenses. I do use filters, and they have saved several expensive lenses from catastrophe for both Tom and myself, but perhaps I do need to take them off sometimes...sigh...once you see figures 8a and 8b you will see why I sigh...
He also shows fixed lenses versus zoom lenses. This part was not as depressing because it feeds into our need to buy more lenses, LOL.
Lisa
These two paragraphs say a lot, but you have to read his whole article and see the photos!
Fixed Focal Length versus Zoom Lenses
"People often choose zoom lenses for their convenience without realizing many zoom lenses are a compromise in image quality. The Canon 100-400 mm L IS lens is very popular with wildlife photographers. Here are results from my 100-400 versus a 300 mm f/4 L IS lens. In both cases, the moon was imaged on the same tripod with the same camera a few minutes apart using mirror lock-up, cable release (TC-80N3) and IS was off. Exposure was 1/200 second at ISO 200, f/5.6. Neither lens had any filters on the front. The 300 f/4 L IS with a Canon 1.4x TCII teleconverter produces sharper images than the 100-400 at 400 mm, Figure 10. "
Fixed focal length L lens versus a consumer zoom
"Figure 12. The 300 mm f/4 L IS lens versus a consumer zoom. Clearly, the fixed focal length lens is much sharper than the consumer zoom. Camera body was the same, a Canon 5D Mark II and the images were taken a few minutes apart. Five images at each setting were obtained with manual exposure, mirror lock-up, IS off, using a carbon fiber tripod. The best image for each setting was selected for this presentation, although there was little difference within each set. The images were converted from raw files using the same settings. Note the 300 f/4 L lens at f/4 is significantly sharper than the consumer zoom at f/8, a 2 stop advantage."
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